Recently, accompanied by a digital broadcast, realization of widening a band of a communication path, or the like, the opportunity of delivering high-resolution image contents such as HDTV (High Definition TV) has increased. As one example, in a ground digital broadcasting format of our country, one channel is divided into thirteen [segments], and some of these segments are bundled, thereby to broadcast video, data, voice, etc. It seems that assigning the twelve segments to a high-vision broadcast (high-resolution broadcast) and one segment to a mobile-body broadcast (low-resolution broadcast), out of the foregoing thirteen segments, incurs an increase in the opportunity of delivering the identical contents at both of a high-resolution and a low-resolution.
In a case of receiving/reproducing the high-resolution image contents such as the HDTV (High Definition TV) in a mobile terminal etc., the high-resolution image contents such as the HDTV, as shown in FIG. 1, is reduced so as to have a low-resolution image such as QVGA (Quarter Video Graphics Array) due to limits to a resolution of a display device of the terminal and a bandwidth of a communication path. FIG. 1 shows the state in which the HDTV image of 1920 pixel by 1080 pixel is reduced into an image of 320 pixel by 180 pixel that is displayable with the QVGA at a reduction ratio of 1/6.
A resolution converter 100 having such a reduction function is shown in FIG. 2.
The resolution converter 100 is configured of an image reducer 1001. The image reducer 1001 reduces the image having a resolution that has been input into an image having a reduced resolution that has been input, and outputs a reduced image. This resolution converter 100 is arranged before the stage of transmitting the image as shown in FIG. 3 in some cases, and is arranged before the stage of reproducing the image as shown in FIG. 4 in some cases. Such a resolution converter 100 makes it possible to receive or reproduce the high-resolution image contents of the HDTV at the mobile terminal irrespectively of limits to a resolution of the display device of the terminal and a bandwidth of the communication path.